A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that Joe Biden overstepped his authority by withdrawing large areas of U.S. coastlines from future offshore oil and gas development.
U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles sided with Republican-led states and oil and gas industry groups that challenged Biden’s move to protect all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
Biden used the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to issue the withdrawals during the final days of his term. Weeks later, President Trump signed an executive order repealing the effort.
Judge Cain ruled the withdrawal was illegal because it was intended to be permanent, noting that similar actions by former President Barack Obama were also designed to be enduring. Cain wrote that such permanent withdrawals “constituted a departure from the executive branch’s longstanding practice and exceed the authority granted under section 12(a) of OCSLA.”
